Homemade cat food
Frozen Bone Broth Lick Cubes
Cat-safe bone broth frozen into little cubes — a hydrating, low-effort summer treat you can pop into a bowl or smear onto a lick mat on a hot day.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 20 min plus freezing
- Makes
- 1 ice-cube tray
🧺 Ingredients
- Raw chicken or beef bones (a few carcass pieces or a couple of large joints)
- Enough water to cover the bones by a few centimetres
- Nothing else — no onion, garlic, salt or stock cubes
👩🍳 Method
- Put the bones in a large pot, cover well with water, and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Simmer very slowly for 12–24 hours, topping up the water as needed, so the broth turns rich and slightly gelatinous.
- Cool, then strain the liquid carefully and discard every bone — cooked bones splinter and must never be given to a cat.
- Skim off the layer of fat that sets on top once chilled, to keep the broth lean.
- Pour the clear broth into an ice-cube tray and freeze.
- Offer one thawed cube in a bowl, or freeze onto a lick mat as a slow, cooling treat.
Nutrition: Long-simmered bone broth is a palatable, water-rich treat that helps tempt fluids into cats who drink too little, and it naturally carries collagen and gelatin drawn from the connective tissue. Freezing it into cubes turns it into an easy, cooling enrichment on warm days.
📝 Notes
The single most important rule: strain out and bin every scrap of bone — cooked bones are a serious choking and internal-injury hazard. Keep the broth completely plain, as onion and garlic are toxic to cats and stock cubes are far too salty. This is a hydrating treat and a lovely topper for fussy or older cats, not a replacement for a balanced diet.
⚕️ Before you cook for your cat
- Homemade food must be balanced. Cats need taurine, and deficiency causes heart and eye disease.
- Treat recipes are supplements to a complete diet, not a replacement for it.
- Check any new ingredient against the toxic-foods list, and ask your vet before switching diets.